Council Rock South boys basketball a rising SOL star
SOUTHAMPTON – In scholastic sports, team chemistry takes time to build. The whole process can have more blips than your average radar screen.
Council Rock South is experiencing just such a basketball season. The young Golden Hawks’ squad has tasted both ends of the winning spectrum. They have snatched some dramatic victories and tasted some bitter disappointments. The sum total of their efforts bodes real well for future success.
Going into the 2016 campaign, South boasted three starters with any appreciable varsity experience. All Suburban One League (SOL) performer Austin Thomas led the Hawks’ hit parade, followed by Kevin Newbert and Mike Stock. The remaining members of the roster bore the “promising newcomer” label.
Halfway through the season, the upcoming stars and the proven veterans have started to meld their talents. On the plus side, the Golden Hawks notched a buzzer-beating 57-56 win over previously unbeaten league power Pennsbury. Prior to that, they captured an overtime 66-65 thriller from Bensalem.
Ryan Boyd, one of the rising stars who has already started to prove his mettle, saw the significance of the win over the Falcons.
“The Pennsbury game was a huge game for us. At that point, they were number one in the league and were undefeated. They came to our house and we beat them. It was a buzzer-beater but it was a huge confidence builder.”
The Golden Hawks hoped to carry that winning swagger into their rematch with Bensalem. Their 4-4 National Division mark placed them in the middle of the pack and very much in contention for a playoff berth.
“”We wanted to win that game. We already had them up one game. If we had beaten them it would be one more team we didn’t have to worry about. We would have beaten them twice.”
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In prepping for the victory, the Hawks’ coaching braintrust decided the best strategy was to run with the athletically talented Owls. “We talked about our transition offense. We tried to beat them up the floor. They shoot and drive to the basket so if we could get a rebound and get up the floor before they do, we’d get some easy layups.”
The battle plan worked fairly well as South entered the locker room at half, trailing the Owls 35-33. As Ryan noted, being behind by two points did inspire some changes.
“We let up a lot of points in the first half. We made some defensive adjustments to limit their scoring. We’d trap on the first pass and try to double their best shooter, number twelve (Ward Roberts).”
With Alex Nordenholt and Mike Krepich leading the offensive surge, South soared to a 52-48 lead at the end of the third quarter. Nordenholt and Krepich would share team scoring honors, netting 17 points apiece on the night.
Unfortunately for the hometown rooters, the fourth quarter did not go as planned for the Hawks. A combination of some hot long-ball shooting by the Owls’ guards and youthful letups on the part of South led to a Bensalem rally that ended in a seven-point Owl victory.
Ryan realistically appraised the disappointing loss. “The key was we didn’t limit them from scoring. We know we can score but we needed to stop them and get our hands up on threes and also help when they drove the lane. Many things go into a loss. I think we just played weak defense. We let them drive on us and get the rebounds. That killed us.”
The 70-63 defeat was a heartbreaker for South. “We were disappointed. That was one we really wanted to stay in the playoff hunt. It was a bad situation.”
The loss, however, should only be a blip on the screen for CR South. Ryan knows the Hawks are young and learning. “We are a good team. We can compete. We’re mostly juniors now and many of us are on our first year of varsity ball. As the year goes on, we need to keep doing what we are doing.”
South has already shown it is a force to reckon with in the highly competitive SOL National Division.
Bensalem 70, Council Rock South 63
(Jan. 19 at CR South)
Bensalem 18 17 13 22 – 70
CR South 16 17 19 11 – 63
BENSALEM — Brandon Vaughn 16, Rich Dean 12, Anthony Greene 11, Ward Roberts 20, BJ Jones 2, Taco Douglas 9.
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH — Austin Thomas 2, Tyler Teufel 6, Michael Krepich 17, Alex Nordenholt 17, Kevin Newbert 3, Ryan McNamee 2, Mike Stock 5, Ryan Boyd 11.
